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November 24, 2008

JVC Everio GZ-HD40 review

There's a lot to like about the JVC Everio GZ-HD40 high-definition camcorder.

A compact model with a beefy 120GB hard drive, the JVC Everio GZ-HD40 records to two formats: the compact and increasingly common AVCHD and the higher-quality MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS).

Although it has decent automatic and manual image control, the JVC Everio GZ-HD40 is like a bilingual exchange student lacking perfect mastery of either his native or secondary tongue. It's a good HD camcorder, but better values abound.

The JVC Everio GZ-HD40 captures 1080i high-definition video on to its 120GB hard drive (or a user-supplied microSDHC card) with a 1/3-inch CMOS sensor.

This JVC Everio GZ-HD40 camcorder is compact, but not cheap. And its image quality isn't the greatest.

The JVC model scores points for handling multiple HD formats, however. The JVC Everio GZ-HD40 records AVCHD at 17, 12, and 5mbps. It can also capture 30mbps MPEG-2 TS (transport stream) files at 1920 by 1080 pixels or as a 1440-by-1080, HDV-compatible 1440 CBR file. The MPEG-2 video looks slightly better than the 17-mbps AVCHD, thanks to smoother colour and increased sharpness. The trade-off: on the 120GB hard drive, you can store just 10 hours of MPEG-2 TS content, versus 15 hours of 17-mbps AVCHD.

Our image-quality evaluations focused on video captured as 1920-by-1080 MPEG-2 TS files. Under standard lighting conditions, the JVC Everio GZ-HD40 created good-looking video that exhibited some oversaturated colours.

We consider the colour inaccuracy a minor drawback, but other people may actually see it as a plus, as the colours appear pleasingly warm. Under low-light conditions, the video looked fair, with washed-out colour. Still images were acceptable, but not quite as good as shots taken by your average sub-£150 digital camera.

In our test centre tests, our jury rated the overall image quality of the JVC Everio GZ-HD40's video and stills as Good, but other HDV and AVCHD camcorders in its class outshone it.

The JVC Everio GZ-HD40's handling and operating features are mixed, at best. For casual shooters, it provides an auto setting, as well as six scene modes (Portrait, Sports, and Twilight among them). For more experienced users, it offers comprehensive manual control of the focus and other settings, including the shutter speed, brightness, white balance, and sharpness.

The menu button and control buttons are conveniently located along the outside edge of the 2.8in flip-out LCD panel. The JVC Everio GZ-HD40 provides both microphone and headphone jacks, plus an accessory shoe. The ports are appropriately placed: the USB port is on the front, near the lens, while the HDMI, component, and AV ports are at the back, by the camcorder's battery. Augmenting the connection options is a nicely designed docking and charging station that adds a FireWire port, as well as extra USB and analogue video ports.

JVC's entry lasted through our test centre's drain tests for 93 minutes. That's decent battery life, though it isn't quite as stellar as the results from some of the other camcorders we've tested.

It's more on a par with the battery life of the hard-drive-carrying Sony Handycam HDR-SR12, which ran for 87 minutes.

A few pet peeves: the JVC Everio GZ-HD40 lacks a viewfinder, a minor point for many users, but one that takes a toll on battery life. Frame-rate options are limited; footage records at 60 interlaced frames per second (60i), and you can't change the look of your video by switching to the filmlike 24 progressive frames per second (24p) or the web-friendly 30 progressive frames per second (30p).

In addition, the JVC Everio GZ-HD40's digital image stabilization didn't perform as well as the optical image stabilisation of other camcorders, such as the excellent stabilisation feature in the Canon Vixia HF10.

NEXT PAGE: importing and editing video

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